means. >> it is a very important question. look, when congress is not able to act to solve the problem of the debt, address the problem of the budget, whatever you want to call it, what happens is that uncertainty increases in the city. when uncertainty increases in the economy, investment slows down and we all know that. risk capital starts to dry up. the riskiest fornl is venture capital. what we do on the west coast or new arc or whatever it is, silicon valley is the beating heart. >> when you say risk capital, it is ventures that sometimes fail and sometimes are astronomically successful. >> that's part of the job. we're not talking about a huge amount of money per year. we're talking single-digit millions per year and those billions per year create hundreds of billions of dollars in wealth and in job creation and in wealth creation. so that is the money that dries up first and we're seeing it already in silicon valley. >> you're saying the cuts, what's the part that dries it

up, the uncertainty our the can you say to the research spending and what's the this i think that most hurts. >> fastest is uncertainty. confidence is the cheapest form of stimulus. when congress is not acting, when it is acting very poorly, when it is acting, what is happening is the all forms of capital, all forms of investment start to dry up and the riskiest form dries up first. next comes the innovation. when you look at about leverage returns, high return on investment, vegs collars, what shows up often in terms of commercially viable product tiesed product that is the compressed air in front of the tip of the spear of the american economy, the thing that makes us the greatest in the world, that goes away. you're talking about highly leveraged impact. silicon valley operates on engineers and encoders. >> the thing is we create the best, most highly leveraged

knowledge worker jobs everyone likes. we feel the prunt first. it is a big, big shame. >> thanks for joining the conversation this week on your money. we are here every saturday 1 p.m. eastern, sunday, 3 p.m. weekdays 3:30 p.m. eastern and find me on facebook.com. have a great weekend. you're in the cnn newsroom. a look at the top stories now. the pentagon is taking nuclear threats from north korea so seriously that it is ramping up missile defense on the west coast. reports say north korea test fired two short range missiles into the waters this past week. u.s. defense secretary chuck hagel says he wants to make it clear they stand firm against aggression. he says 14 extra missile

defenses will be up and running by 2017. >> the reason that we're doing what we're doing and the reason that we're advancing our program here for homeland security is to not take any chances, to stay ahead of the threat. to ensure any contingency and that's why we made the decision we have. >> i will talk to a security expert that will break down the latest threat and the u.s. response. two teenaged girls took the stand for the defense in the rape trial of two high school football stars in steubenville, ohio. the alleged rain of a 26-year-old girl happened last august during a full night of partying. one girl said the victim was drunk and uncooperative during a night of partying in august. she says she refused to leave with friends and went with the athletes. the players insist they're innocent. two people are dead after a bus crash in southern pennsylvania.

three people who were injured were airlifted to the hospital. 23 people were on board. all are members or are associated with the seton hall university women's lacrosse team. investigators say the bus was on the pennsylvania turnpike when it veered off the road and crashed through a guard rail and hit a tree. no word on where it was headed. >> now, back to the growing nuclear threat from north korea. the u.s. is ramping up myself he will defenses on the west coast to stay ahead of that threat. joining me now is international security expert jim walsh. good to see you. is this action meant to send a message or ease fear or both? >> in the press conference announcing this change, it was said that this was intended to send a signal to north korea. i really don't think that's what this is about. maybe a little bit. this is primarily, the primary audience is the american public. it is the president and in this

case the secretary of defense acting to reassure the american public that we are going to respond to the north korea threat. the reality is they're not going to have missiles that can reach the homeland, u.s. homeland for years if ever, and if i wanted to be cynical i would say this is a missile defense program that probably doesn't work aimed against missiles that will never be fired and it is okay to -- there is nothing wrong, i guess, with beefing up your defenses, but it is unclear if this even works. the bottom line, this is meant to reassure the american people, not aimed at our allies or aimed at north korea. >> when you say not sure, you're talking about the intercept tors, unclear whether they will be effective. >> right. they had about half their test so far over a period of years and in fact in announcing the change they said this deployment was contingent on the fact this missile guidance system does in

fact meet standards that it has not yet met. that's what's unsure. that's where i say may not work. i say never sent because north korea is uncliekly to commit suicide. very few countries have said i don't want to live anymore, i want to give up power, i will launch a missile and commit suicide. that's why i think they won't get to this point. our defenses, even if they don't work great, maybe they'll cast a shadow of doubt towards others. i don't think the american public should feel very threatened on the one hand and on the other hand they shouldn't feel like this is a game changer and putting a few more enter accept tors there will make a huge difference. >> it is your belief north korea is simply grandstanding? >> no. i think they're working on it, right. they've had the three long range missile tests and they are going step by step trying to improve their capability. i just tonight know they're going to ever get to that point if they get to that point it is going to be years, not months in

which that happens. i don't think so. this is really, really tough scientific stuff. you have to shrink a warheads, put it on a missile and it can't fail. it better land in the right place and better not come down in your territory or you're in a world of hurt. the standards are extremely high. it is a big challenge. they're working on it, but they are not there yet. >> jim walsh, thanks so much from cambridge. good to see you. >> good to see you, fredrika. thank you. at the conservative political action conference outside washington republicans are trying to figure out what they need to do to win back the white house. mark preston is at the meeting in maryland. there are divisions, no one is arguing about that within the party, mark. does this conference reveal just how deep the divide is?

>> no question. we have 4,000 activists that have come here to hear from panelists talking about one thing, conservatives need to stick by their values. this flies in the face of what we're hearing from republican establishments who are talking more along the lines of having to moderate some of their views in order to broaden the party to try to draw more people in. you look back at the 2012 election and we saw the republicans lost young voters and hispanic voters and african-american voters and the establishment republicans by in large are saying they need to maybe moderate some of those views but here at this conference, though, fred, they're not saying that. >> okay. then there are real headliners among them, former vice presidential nominee sarah palin getting more time than just about anybody else. you know, to speak in her message was one that she says the gop doesn't need rebuilding.

it is the country that needs rebuilding. that was her message. >> that's correct. she is such a crowd favorite. she came out and kind of sa sheaed out there and was able to deliver a forceful message about the grassroots and really to the heart of what many people here are saying is the republican establishment has too much control over the party and in fact is sometimying candidates with conservative values. although she didn't speak his name, but this is who she was talking about when she talked about carl rove. >> the last thing we need is washington d.c. vetting our candidates. if these experts that keep losing elections and keep getting rehired and raking in millions, if they feel that

strongly about who gets to run, they should buck up or stay in the truck. buck up and run. the architects can head on back to -- they can head on back to the great lone star state and put their name on some ballot. >> there you have sarah palin clearly referencing carl rove who has made it clear the republican party needs to pick candidates, winners and losers, in the republican primary heading into the midterm elections as well as 2016, presidential elections and i have to tell you that stands right now. thanks so much. more trouble for carnival cruise line. another ship has a problem at sea. details straight ahead. plus six people are taking on the fit nation challenge with sanjay gupta. up next we'll meet a woman whose

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training for a triathlon is no easy task and getting to the finish line requires months of dedication and hard work. for fit nation participant annette miller training had been a triumph. miller lost 46 pounds in 14 months and sanjay gupta tracks her training. two months ago we set our fit nation participants loose on their journey to become triathlete. one of them i will point out started her journey earlier. in january of 2012 she weighed 385 pounds and by the time she applied 230r the program she had

lost more than 100. it is 146 pounds off the scale. last week i saw her in nashville. >> when it comes to working out, you only get out of it what you put into it. i can remember not being able to maintain for 30 minutes and i can run for two hours now or when i am doing the spin classy still have steam left at the end of an hour so it feels good to just keep building on that. i can do a little bit more today than i did yesterday. >> and there is more to the story than that. annette also inspired her own sister who was considering gastric bypass surgery but had a change of heart when she saw annette's progress. >> about a month ago she just told me she goes, you know, i have been watching you and seen how you have done this and changed your life and i have seen your attitude change and she said because you have done it, i think i can at least try. >> great story.

we're going to keep checking in and i will see you at the nautica malibu triathlon at the finish line in september. best to all of them. >> technology and fashion collide at the south by southwest festival. we'll show you how next. we'll show you how next. blab [ male announcer ] citibank's app for ipad

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tech world? fashion is fashionable in the tech world. who would have thought? you have bracelets to connect your smartphone and measure your heart beat and it is the idea technology is expanding way past the smartphone. i spoke to a woman with a braid sensing headband. it sounds very strange t connects to your phone, your ipad, and you can look at the brain waves and think why would i want to do that? you can improve your memory. you can play different games on the apps. i spoke to the founder, ar he will. listen to what she had to say. >> when you're able to track or sense your brain activity you can do things to improve it. you can do exercises about functioning and decrease stress and then over time ultimately the future we'll be able to play games and control appliances in our environment and using only our mind. >> are we going to be able to turn off the toaster, some day turn it on with our mind? probably not. it is this idea we can use technology to make our lives better and be a little bit

healthier, fredrika. >> kind of cool stuff. so a lot of investors at the south by southwest festival looking for ideas. what can they cash in on? what are some of the things they're looking for. >> of course wanting to know what is the next big thing. it is what we spoke about, expanding past the smartphone. you have geeks wearing google glasses and i think investors are looking for that hardware aspect now that we have seen apps explode and we spoke to celeb riddies and geeks and politicians and everybody has an idea technology is becoming cultured and investors are looking to invest in big ideas, fredrika. >> all right. good thing. it is looking ahead and looking forward, isn't it? >> yes. >> lori, we're going to check out that special later on today in about, well, just really ten minutes from now. right here on cnn. cnn south by southwest special

coming your way at the bottom of the hour, 2:30 eastern time. thanks, lori. how about traveling the world? would you do it if you lost your vision? up next a blind woman teaches us there is more out there than what meets the eye. sanjay gupta introduces us to her next. doris taerbaum finished her first marathon at 50. not everyone peaks in their twenties. throughout their lives. passion keeps them realizing possibilities. an ally for real possibilities. aarp. find tools and support at aarp.org/possibilities.

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in the human factor sanjay gupta introduces us to an 89-year-old blind woman whose poor vision hasn't stopped her from traveling the world. >> this is what the world looks like through arlene gordan's eyes, 100% darkness 100% of the time. >> it started in my 30s, 40s, the vision became so bad that i

decided to gamble. i said, you know, it is worse this way. i am neither here nor there. >> gordan scheduled herself for an operation she was told could potentially make her vision even worse. >> for six weeks i had the west best vision i ever had in my life. it was fantastic. i was like a baby walking around and looking at everything. >> just as she had been warned, a few weeks later gordan's remaining vision vanished rendering her completely blind. soon she learned to navigate her new world. >> as you tap your deliberately clearing a path in front of you. >> the streets of new york city were never enough. gordan refused to let her blindness stand in the way of her passion for travel. cuba, south africa, countless cities in europe collecting souvenirs at every stop along the way and this is fascinating. hand her a souvenirs and by feel

alone she can tell you exactly what it is and where she got it. >> oh, it is a buddha, and that is from india. >> travel, she says, gave her a life as in chintsing in the movies. >> when we were in venice and the windows opened up and i remembered seeing the movie with katherine hepburn where she is looking out over the piazza. there are so many things you can experience other than visually. as a matter of fact, one friend said to me i never saw as much as i did when i traveled with you. >> dr. sanjay gupta, cnn, reporting. >> all right. we'll have much more of the newsroom after this. everyone's retirement dream is different;

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